Retrieve text from a RemoteViews Object

Question

I need to retrieve some text from a RemoteViews object. It is possible for me to get the LayoutId, but I have no idea how to retrieve text from a TextView that is in this RemoteView (namely a notification).

Also the RemoteView only contains setters, but no getters, so I guess I have to use the LayoutId (somehow).

Can you help me with that? Thanks!

/edit: The reason why I am asking this, is because I have an AccessibilityService that retrieves the notification. Therefore this is the only way of retrieving the value.

/edit2: I use this code for receiving the notification:

@Override
public void onAccessibilityEvent(AccessibilityEvent event) {
    if (event.getEventType() == AccessibilityEvent.TYPE_NOTIFICATION_STATE_CHANGED) {
        List<CharSequence> notificationList = event.getText();
        for (int i = 0; i < notificationList.size(); i++) {
            Toast.makeText(this.getApplicationContext(), notificationList.get(i), 1).show();
        }
        if (!(parcel instanceof Notification)) {
            return;
        }
        final Notification notification = (Notification) parcel;
        doMoreStuff();

    }
}

With the notification object I have access to a RemoteViews (notification.contentView) and to a PendingIntent (notification.contentIntent). To get the layoutId, I can call contentView.getLayoutId()

Answer 1

I proposed a similar solution here that also uses reflection to solve the problem, but in a more approachable fashion. This is my solution. In this context, the RemoteViews came from a Notification, so the first three lines can probably be ignored if you already have access to the RemoteViews object. The link on the page provides a much more detailed explanation of what is actually going on. I hope this will help anyone with a similar problem.

public static List<String> getText(Notification notification)
{
    // We have to extract the information from the view
    RemoteViews        views = notification.bigContentView;
    if (views == null) views = notification.contentView;
    if (views == null) return null;

    // Use reflection to examine the m_actions member of the given RemoteViews object.
    // It's not pretty, but it works.
    List<String> text = new ArrayList<String>();
    try
    {
        Field field = views.getClass().getDeclaredField("mActions");
        field.setAccessible(true);

        @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
        ArrayList<Parcelable> actions = (ArrayList<Parcelable>) field.get(views);

        // Find the setText() and setTime() reflection actions
        for (Parcelable p : actions)
        {
            Parcel parcel = Parcel.obtain();
            p.writeToParcel(parcel, 0);
            parcel.setDataPosition(0);

            // The tag tells which type of action it is (2 is ReflectionAction, from the source)
            int tag = parcel.readInt();
            if (tag != 2) continue;

            // View ID
            parcel.readInt();

            String methodName = parcel.readString();
            if (methodName == null) continue;

            // Save strings
            else if (methodName.equals("setText"))
            {
                // Parameter type (10 = Character Sequence)
                parcel.readInt();

                // Store the actual string
                String t = TextUtils.CHAR_SEQUENCE_CREATOR.createFromParcel(parcel).toString().trim();
                text.add(t);
            }

            // Save times. Comment this section out if the notification time isn't important
            else if (methodName.equals("setTime"))
            {
                // Parameter type (5 = Long)
                parcel.readInt();

                String t = new SimpleDateFormat("h:mm a").format(new Date(parcel.readLong()));
                text.add(t);
            }

            parcel.recycle();
        }
    }

    // It's not usually good style to do this, but then again, neither is the use of reflection...
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        Log.e("NotificationClassifier", e.toString());
    }

    return text;
}